Modern management systems provide fully integrated network management for various technologies such as LAN, TDM, Frame Relay, ATM and IP, using a rich graphical user interface (GUI). A GUI (graphical user interface) uses object oriented programming techniques to present the information to the network operator for visual inspection, typically using interactive windows. The GUI selects the information to be presented in a window in accordance with a respective request in the context of network management and service provisioning capabilities of the network. The operators monitor and control the display of information on a video terminal (workstation) and the GUI enables the network management system (NMS) to receive, reject, accept and respond to the requested actions.
Each window uses basic displayable elements and controls (widgets), such as icons, pull-down menus, buttons, selection boxes, progress indicators, on-off checkmarks, scroll bars, window frames, window manipulators, etc. Examples of GUI windows are topology maps providing graphical representations of the network, where basic icons are displayed for each network object. Information about the state of the objects on the map is generally conveyed by outlining the icons using solid, colored, dashed, tri-dimensional representations. Equally important, the maps also show the connections between the icons representing the network elements.
Often a GUI map must display connections to network elements (NE's) that are not part of a currently displayed map. For example, the topology maps displayed by Alcatel's network management 5620 NM show connectivity outside of the currently displayed map with arrows originating at the respective NE's or NE group on the map, and identify the names of groups that contain NE's with which they are connected, at the tip of the arrows. Often, an NE or a group is the origin over 50 arrows, making the map very cluttered. As the arrows cannot be moved, they often overlap and are not distinctly visible. As a result, the users are not able to ‘point and click’ a desired connection for selecting it.
The operators need to be provided with a simple way to identify the nodes outside the currently displayed map that are connected to the NE's or groups in their respective map, for easy, user-friendly problem analysis and resolution. Therefore, a way to display this information, without cluttering the respective map is highly desirable.
In addition, in many cases the users wish to access the NE's that are outside the node group shown on the current map. When the user wants to access such outside NE's, s/he must list them or use a ‘Find node’ command. Therefore, there is also a need to provide a more efficient way to access the nodes outside of the node group shown on the current map.
Connectors on network topology maps such as the map provided by Alcatel network management system 5620 NM are just a label, and clicking on such a connector does not allow users to go to the location displayed on the label. Still other NMS's enable viewing another group map by clicking on a connector, but the group map the connector leads to needs to be manually configured. Often, network connectivity is not point to point but could span many NE's which may be in many different groups. Users would like to check all devices associated with such multi-hop connections. Being able to follow these connections from device to device without regard to which group the various associated devices are in, and without having to set the group maps for each connector manually, is a very valuable feature.